Author Gift | Trouble in Censorville: The Far Right's Assault on Public Education and the Teachers Who are Fighting Back

I received both a free digital and physical copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Rating | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is easily one of the best, most important books I've read this year. If the attack on our education system does not alarm you, you are part of the problem.

Let me be very clear: teachers are not trying to indoctrinate students. If that was our goal, everyone would be kind, wear deodorant, and turn homework in on time.

What we ARE trying to do, however, is provide safe environments for ALL students, and foster communities of inclusion and kindness so that all students know they have a place they belong. Representation matters and I will scream this at the top of my lungs from the top of the mountain until the day I die. All students deserve to see their reality reflected in the books they read and the tv shows and movies they watch. This includes books and graphic novels in classroom libraries and school libraries.

Across the country starting at local levels, the attacks have begun. The curious part of this is that these attacks often start with individuals who don't even have children in the school(s), or district as a whole, that they are targeting. They seem to get the ball rolling in many instances, and then it snowballs from there.

By now most people heave heard of Florida's "Dont' Say Gay" law. You can find more information about what this all entails at Human Rights Watch. Laws like this are so detrimental to the children we serve. Are we just supposed to pretend LGBTQIA+ people do not exist, even within our own classrooms? If so, what does that teach those children? That they don't matter? Their identity is not important? How many more children are we willing to lose, kids who kill themselves because to them it is the best solution for what they are going through?

Aside from that fuckery, we have agitators calling for book bans in school libraries - often books that those calling for such bans have not even read. Yet they attend school board meetings, railing against books they call pornographic, declaring teachers to be pedophiles for giving students access to them. Upon hearing such words as porngraphic or pedophile, it is easy for others to quickly be up in arms, without bothering to find out if this is actually true or not.

This book contains essays from across the educational spectrum - from elementary to high school - art teachers, social studies teachers, principals, and librarians at all three levels. Their experiences range from disheartening to traumatizing. Their jobs and lives are threatened, they're doxxed, called groomers, put on leave, or fired - all because they dared to make their spaces welcoming for ALL students, or because they dared to teach historically accurate information.

In one case, it was not even anything that happened in the classroom, but perception that a teacher was not 'feminine enough' in their dress; the teacher also used they/them pronouns, and the non-binary Mx instead of Ms. Less than a week into the school year, parents in their school district found their Insta account that showed various art projects they'd completed during their college coursework and proceeded to insist the work promotoed pedophilia (images were actually charcoal work showing nude ADULT models) and suicidal ideation (because of a performance piece that involved a plastic bag NEAR their face. The teacher was placed on leave four days into the new year and eventually signed a separation agreement that came with fantastic letters of reference. So this teacher, who could have been a candidate for Teacher of the Year, was run out of the district because some parents did not like how they looked. That is what this all boils down to, and it is disgusting. Not once did this teacher discuss their appearance, gender roles, or anything related to those topics in their classroom. They were hired to teach art to pr-k through 4th grade, and that is what they did. Yet they lost their job, ultimately because they looked different than all the other teachers on campus.

Something the book does well, aside from sharing a wide variety of ways teachers and school librarians have come under attack is to share a timeline of just such events. It begins in the period of 1865-1877 during Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. Communism, the "Lavender Scare", Brown v. Board of Education, school vouchers, and so many more court cases come up, several commissions, and then specific events that target public education directly are all outlined. It is eye-opening to see that this is nothing new, but this round is the most dangerous given the speed with which misinformation spreads thanks to social media and those purposely agitating with false info.

An unfortunate theme that emerges here is that of passive admins who don't support their teachers because they don't want to upset the parents, or lose their own jobs. The teachers sharing their stories here all experienced this in some form, from admins to basically giving in, to those outright hostile to them. Some also spoke of lack of support from colleagues who did not want to get involved, for fear of being placed on leave or being fired as well.

It is little wonder then, that these educators also spoke of the debilitating mental, emotional, and physical effects on their health as they struggled to understand how doing their jobs, or simply existing, was cause to get them removed from a profession they had once loved so much. These are qualified educators, some of whom had been in their positions for several years with zero issues before. Along with often being forced out of their jobs or being moved to other teaching positions, these educators reported an increase in feeling unmanageable amounts of stress/anxiety, depression, panic attacks, weight loss or gain, insomnia, panic attacks, and more.

Another thing I loved about this book was hearing from the educators themselves. Here, they control their own stories and share the impact from start to finish, both on their careers and themselves, with no chance for the media to distort or deceived (always looking at you in general, Faux News). I think this is crucial in order for people to understand just how massive these problems are, and how widespread this is becoming. For the 14 stories shared here, I can guarantee there are hundreds more we may never hear about.

This book is a must-read for everyone who sees where this road leads. I also highly encourage you to check out the website Censorville for videos from the teachers themselves (or those with actors portraying them), more information about the book, resources, and so much more.

Highly highly recommended.

Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids

Rating: 2.5 Stars

I received a free digital copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was interesting, but I felt like the execution was lacking. I worked as s substitute after getting my Bachelor's in elementary education, to see which schools I might like to work at. I then had a one-year contract and subbed more after that while working on my Master's in Special Education. Since graduating with my second degree, I have been employed full time in the Behavior Skills Program, a self-contained classroom within an elementary school for students with identified behavior disorders/emotional disturbances. As a result of my experience in being both a sub and a full-time educator, I know both sides very well. I've had days just like those he described in the first few chapters, but for this first bit I could not quite put my finger on what was lacking. The further I read, it became clear: we were getting minute-by-minute accounts of each day, from the early-AM call through the last bell of the day, but there was no real reflection on any of the days or what he learned from it about the state of education in the US today. 

As an aside, I find it alarming that in Maine one merely has to take one evening class, get fingerprinted, and boom, you're a sub. At least here, someone who is not in the field of education can only sub a limited number of days at least. Though it has been 5 years since I have subbed, so things may have changed.

I could readily identify with Baker when he said he felt like he had taught nothing all day. For the times I was in a one-day subbing position I felt like that also. Luckily, I rarely had those. I had several friends who worked at the same middle school as 6th grade teachers, and three of them had babies within two years, so I was lucky to get long-term positions and really get to know the kids. The other teachers on the team then began requesting me as well, and at one point I had subbed there so often that half the kids thought I was a staff member. This went on for three years and by the end of that time, I had strong relationships built with 8th, 7th, and 6th graders because I had subbed so long. As a result of the long-term jobs, I did teach new content - a lot of it. But in those random one day jobs, definitely not. As an educator myself, going on five years now in my position within the Behavior Skills Program, I very, very rarely leave any sub plans that involves subs teaching new concepts. It is not that I don't think they're capable, but it's the way kids are educated today. Unfortunately, particularly in math, students are taught even simple things like one and two digit multiplication in ridiculous, complex ways. They are expected to solve the problems that way on tests, not in ways we were taught 10-20 years ago.

If you have read any previous reviews, you might also know that I am wary of re-created conversations. Unless an author is recording the conversation or taking exhaustive notes, there is no way conversations are 100% accurate - especially considering the volume of those that exist in this book. There is simply no way he would even have had time to take notes, considering how much time he had to spend devoted to the actual students. So, I will go out on a limb and say they have to be fictionalized accounts, at least somewhat.

There also came a point where the book simply got repetitive. Each day started the same - the wake-up call from dispatch, driving to the school, the endless days, and so on and so on. I eventually started skimming, for a couple reasons. One being the repetitiveness as I mentioned, but also partly because I have already lived a lot of days like this. Some I am happy to recall, some not so much.

In the end, I will be the first to say that subbing is a tough gig. I subbed for a long time and there were specific schools and classrooms I would refuse to return to. I was just hoping for something with a little more thoughtful reflection on how an outsider views our educational system and a lot less repetition.

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

Rating: 5 Stars

Loved this book. Loved, loved, loved it. I breezed through the book in a matter of hour one morning - obviously meaning that I did not yet memorize the passages yet for myself. I was interested in the explanations first, and will go back through when my daughter is a little bit older for the big passages. That is kind of a gimme, seeing as how she is yet a toddler. Though, she does have one phrase memorized already, because we say it together before bedtime every night: "And though she be but little, she is fierce" (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and we shout 'fierce' together, because she is.

I was a bit skeptical (as a teacher) about the method the author uses of just rote memorization. But as I read, and realized the author was also explaining what the passages meant in accompanying t-charts, this method makes perfect sense. The author does not just list a bunch of passages, tell you to memorize them, and move on. He begins little by little, first with shorter couplets and such, before moving on to the massive soliloquies. 

This book has so much to offer besides the memorization of certain passages. The author also explains what they mean, gives background of Shakespeare's life and work. The book is just filled with so much Shakespeare-y goodness, I really don't know where to start. I would definitely recommend it to those who find Shakespeare intimidating or *gasp* boring (do I really know people like that? I might, but given that I am not quiet a out my adoration of Shakespeare, perhaps these people in my life have chosen to remain quiet?) Either way, I do believe there is something for everyone here - very obviously including children.

Ludwig states that he started teaching his daughter Shakespeare when she was six years old. I think that is fantastic. Shakespeare is, without question, the single greatest writer in the history of the world. There's no argument, he invented so many words and phrases, most of which we still use today. I guarantee you (and me too, even) use phrases or variations every day that we have no idea started with Shakespeare. His contributions can never be overstated and that is why I wanted this book - I want my daughter to know and love his words as I do.

I did notice some reviews from parents who did not like some of the author's choice of passages - mainly those with sexual overtones. My suggestion: don't teach your child those if you feel they are so inappropriate. Is that really hard? You'd think this would be common sense. There's nothing saying you MUST TEACH YOUR CHILD ALL THE PASSAGES IN THIS BOOK. It would be easy enough to apply the method he uses to ANY Shakespeare passage that you love or enjoy and teach your child in that way. I mean seriously, come on.

I absolutely, positively, 100% recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about Shakespeare and his words, to memorize and know his works, not just children. Fantastic read. Go get it!